Having crossed my midlife timeline, I'm now asking myself if I’ve done or have already made plans on doing things I wanted to do in life. This blog is an exploration of my personal development these next 40 years (or more). Hence, my bucket list…. Might as well make one task on my list of putting up my own blog as my progress report (or lack of it) on this self imposed list..now shared “urbi-et-orbi"-to the city and to the world.Here it goes….

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Friday, March 15, 2013

Have you read about this before? Its the first time for me so I just wanted to share to other younger Volkswagen (VW) enthusiast on how our beloved German iconic vehicle was a part of The Beatles entertainment history....or urban legend...You be the judge..

The Abbey Road Beatles album was first issued on 26th September, 1969- the final Beatles album to be recorded, but not their last to be released. For the first time on a Beatles album, the front cover contained neither the group’s name nor the album title- just that iconic photograph taken on the zebra crossing next to the Abbey Road studios in London NW8 in August 1969.

For decades now fans of the Fab Four have suggested that Paul McCartney was killed in a car crash and replaced with a lookalike - pointing to his barefoot appearance on the Abbey Road album cover as proof. Conspiracy theorists believed the cover contained clues, as the band wanted to reveal the truth of their guilty secret. Below are the "clues" in the album cover (numbers added as a guide to clues below) discovered throughout the years- some of it a bit of a stretch for me- but nonetheless mentioned here as trivia and of course relating the whole tale to the iconic VW beetle as seen in the background below.

The cover is a funeral procession of The Beatles across the zebra crossing-Paul's funeral. John Lennon, in white was seen as a preacher leading the procession, Ringo Starr’s black outfit indicated he was an undertaker or the mourner, while a denim-clad with scruffy shirt George Harrison was the grave-digger.

Paul is wearing an old suit and is the only one who is barefoot which allegedly is how people are buried in several countries.

2. THE CIGARETTE

A closer look at Paul reveals he's a holding his cigarette—commonly referred to as the coffin nail—in his right hand (he is left-handed). This is a significant clue to theorists suggesting that Paul's 'coffin lid' had been nailed down and the person on the cover is perhaps not Paul but in fact a replacement for him after his death.

3. THE VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE REGISTRATION PLATE.

Behind George Harrison appears a white Volkswagen which looks like an innocent car until one checks out the license plate: 28 IF. It means that Paul would have been 28 if he was still alive.It has also been suggested that the LMW stands for 'Linda McCartney Weeps' - referring to his new wife whom he had married earlier that year.

4. THE SPECTATORS

In the background, a small group of people dressed in white stand on one side of the road, while a lone person stands on the other. Is this meant to be Paul, alone and different from the others?

5. THE POLICE VAN

The police van on the other side of the street symbolize the police who were called to the scene of the original McCartney accident in 1966 and were paid off to hush up the whole affair. According to legend, the band's manager, Brian Epstein, bought their silence.

6. THE LINE OF CARS

A line can be traced from the VW Beetle to the three cars in front of it. If it is drawn connecting their right wheels it runs straight through Paul's head, with theorists suggesting that means Paul sustained a head injury because of a car crash.

7. THE BLOODSTAIN

On the Australian version of the album, the cover showed what could be a bloodstain splattered on the road just behind Ringo and John, supposedly backing claims of a road accident.

8. THE CRACKED S

On the back cover there is a picture of the Abbey Road sign and above it the name Beatles has been written. There is an obvious crack running through the S - thought to suggest problems within the group.

9. THE DOTS

To the left of the name 'BEATLES' there are a series of eight dots. When joined together they form the number three. Did this mean there were only three Beatles left?

10. IMAGE OF DEATH

If the back cover is turned 45 degrees anticlockwise a crude image of the Grim Reaper appears, from his skull to his black gown- a sign that someone in the group had died.

11. THE GIRL

Nobody knows the identity of the girl dressed in blue on the back cover. On the night of the alleged 'car crash' it was raining heavily and Paul is said to have given a lift to a fan called Rita. It could be that this girl is her, either fleeing the scene or running to get help.

12. PAUL'S FINAL RESTING PLACE

If the writing on the wall is split into sections, it conveys the cryptic message, 'Be at Les Abbey'. In numerology the following two letters, R and O, are the 18th and 15th letters in the alphabet. By adding this together (33) and multiplying by the number of letters (2), we get 66, the year Paul is supposed to have died.

McCartney insisted he had merely kicked off his sandals because it was a hot summer’s day. On the day of the photo shoot The Beatles were dressed in the suits of Tommy Nutter, Savile Row’s enfant terrible of the time – all except George Harrison, who insisted on wearing denims.

The photo on the album cover was in fact just one of ten taken during the same 1969 shoot by photographer Iain Macmillan. In fact, a rare photograph of the Beatles that disproves a conspiracy theory about Paul McCartney's 'death' has sold for £20,000 at auction. The photo shows the band walking in the 'wrong' direction across the famous Abbey Road zebra crossing - and more importantly shows McCartney wearing a pair of white leather sandals.

Iconic image: Taken at the same time as the famous Abbey Road album cover in 1969, this picture clearly shows Paul McCartney, third from left, wearing a pair of sandals.

URBI-ET-ORBI……My Bucket List Journals.

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